Politics, Music, Sounds, and Sanity: Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community

Saturday, October 18, 2008

I got the wedding bell blues

(Ellen DeGeneres: Vote NO on Prop. 8)

About Antonin Scalia, someone once said that his rulings were always predictable, and that he could find law to support his already made-up mind.

The Orange Co. Register, a supposedly Libertarian paper, always felt like that to me. Their editorials always supported the far right, even when opposing their own Glibertarian philosophy.

Today they published a few "No on Prop. 8" letters that were beautiful:

Prop. 8 supporter scare tactics seem to have frightened a number of citizens. Let's clear up a few misconceptions:

•First, marriage equality expands religious freedom. No religious institution or clergy member will be forced to perform same-sex ceremonies. But the many worship leaders who favor equal marriage will remain free to follow their conscience and bless the unions of all loving couples, not just some.

•Second, defeating Prop. 8 in no way opens the door to polygamy. That's another ridiculous scare tactic; don't fall for it.

•Third, domestic partnerships are not legally equivalent to marriage. They're no substitute for the rights and dignity granted to married couples.

•Fourth, "Traditional marriage" has referred, over the centuries, to an institution that permitted polygamy, deemed wives to be the property of their husbands, and prohibited interracial unions, among other things. Fortunately, the institution of marriage has always been big enough, and generous enough, to evolve.

Prop. 8 is about eliminating fundamental rights of people in your neighborhood, workplace, church, and community. As an Orange Countian who believes in freedom, fairness and equality for all citizens, I'm voting no on Prop. 8.

and

It's amazing how much the Prop. 8 proponents sound just like the offended moralists who opposed inter-racial marriage when I was a kid. For that matter, they sound like the same people that oppose pretty much any cultural advancement from desegregating the military to women's' and African Americans' right to vote.

Discrimination is discrimination, no matter how comfortable you may be with it.

Learn to accept people who aren't carbon copies of yourself and stop feeling threatened anytime someone asks for the same rights you already have.

But they published 5 Pro-8 letters, and only 3 Anti-8 letters, so the bias is, once again, clear, IMHO.

The pro Prop. 8 movement has created some strange, and strained, bedfellows. The evangelical right doesn't hide its disdain of Catholics (not true Christians) and Mormons (non-Christian cult). Yet the bulk of the Yes-on-8 money is coming from those 3 groups:

Organizations such as Focus on the Family, the Knights of Columbus and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints think so too; they have all actively supported the push to get Proposition 8 passed. Mormon financial support alone is said to account for roughly 35 percent of total financial contributions in favor of the initiative thus far.